It's hip to hate Starbucks, presumably because everyone thinks that hipsters love them (hint: they don't), but I'll drop the coffee snobbery and be totally, 100% honest here: They're not bad. While I'll always prefer my favorite local houses (who wouldn't?), if I'm new in town (or out of town) I'm definitely going to choose a Starbucks over a Dunkin' Donuts (oh yes, I went there) or an effing McCafé. (I know as a former Minnesotan I'm supposed to love Caribou Coffee, but I just don't, sorry.) And for people not fortunate enough to live near an "honest" coffeehouse a Starbucks provides a decent enough approximation: they play good (if not local) music, their staff is unequivocally friendly, and they're just quiet and noisy and empty and busy enough to comfortably vanish into whatever you're reading (or writing). In other words, they have their place.
That, not some cultish Starbucks loyalty, is the biggest problem facing the McCafé concept. Starbucks has the sizable advantage of not having a playplace in the middle of the store. It seems like whatever hour I go to a McDonald's, there are always screaming children there; McDonald's is most directly marketed at children, after all. Throw in the constant beeping of the drive-thru timer (punctuated only by commercials for McDonald's over the radio) and seats designed to encourage you to leave quickly and you have, well, McDonald's. They're a place very few people would actually choose to hang out at, but they're desperately trying to convince the world that all you pay for at Starbucks is the name on the cup, honest!
and i guess i've known it all along / the truth is, you have to be soft to be strong
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